1786
Year 1786 (MDCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1786 January - June * January 3 - Treaty of Hopewell signed between United States of America and the Choctaw Nation * January 10 - Treaty of Hopewell signed between United States of America and the Chickasaw Nation * May 21 - Trial of the Necklace affair ends in Paris. July - December * August 1 - Caroline Herschel discovered a comet - the first comet discovered by a woman. * August 8 - Mont Blanc was climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat. : Mont Blanc climbed.]] * August 11 - Captain Francis Light, known as the founder of Penang, landed in Penang and renamed it "Prince of Wales Island" in honour of the heir to the British throne. * August 29 - Shays Rebellion begins. * September 2 - Hurricane in Barbados. * November 7 - The oldest musical organization in the United States was founded as the Stoughton Musical Society. * November 30 - Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day. * December 4 - The Mission Santa Barbara was founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the tenth mission in the California mission chain. : Mission Santa Barbara is founded.]] * Goethe undertakes his 'Italian Journey' throughout September-December (published in 1817). Undated * Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. * Francis Light acquires the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah on behalf of the British East India Company. It is the first British colony in South-East Asia. * Anglo-Spanish treaty gives Belize to Britain. * First ship of convicts leaves Britain for Botany Bay, Australia: 820 out of 1138 aboard are convicts. * The trade with Iceland is opened to all Danish and Norwegian traders. * Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, is founded * The Mozart opera "The Marriage of Figaro" is premiered in Vienna. * The town of Martinsborough, North Carolina, itself named for Royal Governor Josiah Martin in 1771, is renamed "Greenesville" in honor of United States General Nathaniel Greene by the North Carolina General Assembly; the name "Greenesville" is later shortened to become Greenville. * James Rumsey tested his first steam boat in the Potomac river at Shepherdstown Virginia (now West Virginia). Births * January 8 - Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States (d. 1844) * January 12 - Sir Robert Inglis, Bt, English politician (d. 1855) * January 23 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858) * February 16 - Maria Pavlovna of Russia, Grand duchess of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach (d. 1859) * February 24 - Martin W. Bates, U.S. Senator from Delaware (d. 1869) * February 24 - Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1859) * March 22 - Joachim Lelewel, Polish historian (d. 1861) * June 13 - Winfield Scott, American general and Presidential candidate (d. 1866) * August 17 - David "Davy" Crockett, American frontiersman (d. 1836) * August 25 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868) * September 10 - William Mason, American politician (d. 1860) * September 11 - Friedrich Kuhlau, German composer (d. 1832) * September 18 - King Christian VIII of Denmark (d. 1848) * September 24 - Charles Bianconi, Italian-Irish entrepreneur * December 12 - William L. Marcy, American statesman (d. 1857) Unknown dates *Henry Bishop, English composer (d. ??) *Kim Jeonghui, Korean epigrapher (d. 1856) *Alexander Bryan Johnson, American philosopher (d. 1867) *Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826) *Jean Francois Barriere, French historian *Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho (d. 1870) : See also 1786 births. Deaths *January 7 - Jean-Étienne Guettard, French physician and scientist (b. 1715) *January 14 - Meshech Weare, Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1713) *February 28 - John Gwynn, English architect and engineer (b. 1713) *March 11 - Charles Humphreys, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1714) *April 10 - John Byron, British naval officer (b. 1723) *May 19 - John Stanley, English composer (b. 1712) *May 21 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742) *May 25 - Pedro III of Portugal, consort of Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1717) *August 17 - King Frederick the Great of Prussia (b. 1712) *September 5 - Jonas Hanway, English merchant, traveler, and philanthropist (b. 1712) *October 2 - Augustus Keppel, British admiral (b. 1725) *October 17 - Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss artist (b. 1723) *November 30 - Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish military leader, (b. 1746), aided the United States in its quest for independence in the American Revolutionary War. *December 26 - Gasparo Gozzi, Italian critic and dramatist (b. 1713) Unknown dates * (none) : See also 1786 deaths.